The lawyer fighting for Uber and Lyft employees is taking the fight to four more companies

The lawyer who sued Uber and Lyft for not classifying contract
workers as employees is now representing workers against four
more on-demand companies: delivery services Postmates and
Instacart, laundry service Washio, shipping company Shyp.

Workers from Postmates, Shyp, and Washio sued their employers
this week, arguing that they should be classified as employees
and not independent contractors. Liss-Riordan filed all three cases on June
29.

In addition, while there's
already a case against Instacart in California, Liss-Riordan has
filed a different class-action case against Instacart on June 30,
but limited to Massachusetts.

Liss-Riordan is already fighting
to reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers in two cases that will go
to a jury trial in August. She's also filed lawsuits against
cleaning service Homejoy, food delivery startup Caviar, and a
different case against Postmates on behalf of its couriers.

The Shyp, Instacart, and
Postmates customer service cases were filed as "class action
arbitration demands" in arbitration courts because of their
contracts, Liss-Riordan said.

Postmates did not return a
request for comment. Washio and Instacart had no comment, and
Shyp was still reviewing the claim. (We'll update this post as we
hear back.)

The lawsuits strike at the core of the so-called "1099
economy"

The difference between the 1099 workers and W-2
employees, according
to the IRS, is that for common-law employees, employers "must
withhold income taxes, withhold and pay Social Security and
Medicare taxes, and pay unemployment tax on wages paid." The same
is not necessarily true for an independent contractor.

In addition, benefits are often extended to employees but not
independent contractors, and employers have the right to control
how a worker behaves — how to dress, for example, or specific
customer interaction protocol — when they're an employee and not
an independent contractor.

Each of these new filings
alleges different ways each company is controlling their workers,
which may indicate that they are employees under law.

Washio hires
drivers, or "ninjas," to deliver laundry as part of its
on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service. According to the
court filing, the company makes Washio drivers agree to an
exclusivity arrangement, where they agree not to provide
service for similar businesses. They're also paid a fee for
each pick-up and delivery, the complaint alleges.

Shyp's
couriers operate in a similar way to Washio's, although its
"Heroes" get paid hourly to pick-up packages. They're
instructed to "always bubblewrap fragile items" and claim to
receive warnings for rejecting too many pick-ups, the
arbitration demand alleges.

In the newest claim against
Postmates, pay for its customer service reps
is the issue. According to the arbitration demand, the
representatives make 35 cents for each delivery they
facilitate. If a store doesn't pick up the phone, the
representative has to call back four times in two minutes
before doing a search to see if the business is closed, the
claim alleges. One plaintiff estimated in the arbitration
demand that she worked 30 hours in April 2015, but only made
$45.85 for 131 calls.

Shyp

"I’ve been amazed to see how far companies are stretching it. So
many companies just seem to watched what Uber did and think it’s
ok," Liss-Riordan said. "It’s like they just sort of assumed they
don’t have to worry about it. I just find it unbelievable."

The issue is starting to gain steam after the California
Labor Commission ruled last month that an Uber driver,
who filed a suit against the company for misclassifying her as an
independent contractor, was actually an employee.

Shyp, the package shipping service, announced Wednesday that it
would be
reclassifying all of its couriers as employees. The
change is effective immediately as it rolls out to new cities
like Chicago. For existing workers, employee status will begin
January 1, 2016,
according to Fast Company. A company spokesperson said the
decision has had nothing to do with the arbitration demand.

Instacart
announced in June that it would also transition some of its
shoppers to W2-employees in select markets.

Liss-Riordan called the moves to reclassify contractors as
employees "a step in the right direction." Should her cases win
in court, Liss-Riordan said the companies would only be
responsible for back pay up until the date they are switched over
to employee status. Companies that do switch can "limit their
exposure moving forward," she said.

"FedEx battled me for 10 years," Liss-Riordan said. "I’m ready to
hang in there and fight for for however long they want to
fight."